Cell identifier (ID) confusion may occur when there is a duplicate cell ID for multiple cells capable of handover to or from a neighboring cell that is serving at least one wireless device. When cell ID confusion exists, it is possible to perform a handover incorrectly because the duplicate cell ID may be used to obtain handover information for a cell that is not the intended target. Such confusion may ultimately cause a handover to fail and a call on the at least one wireless device to be dropped. In order to reduce failure during handovers, it may be desirable for a network operator to instruct at least one of the cells having the duplicate cell ID to change its cell ID.
However, there may be situations in which apparent cell ID confusion is not actual cell ID confusion. Network operators may pre-configure new or existing cells with information about all potential neighboring cells prior to information actually being received at the pre-configured cells from wireless devices. The pre-configured cells may contain or may access a database in which information such as cell ID is contained. In an exemplary embodiment, such a database may be a neighbor relations table (NRT). When a duplicate cell ID appears in a serving cell database, there is potential cell ID confusion.
When there is no opportunity for handover to the incorrect cell, it may be an inefficient use of network resources to initiate and carry out a change of cell ID. Therefore, it may be desirable to determine whether actual cell ID confusion exists by determining opportunity for handover to each cell having the duplicate cell ID.